1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications systems and, in particular, to an enhancement of the interface between a customer administrative system and database network elements of a telecommunications system to support query oriented processing in addition to transaction oriented processing.
2. Description of Related Art
Reference is now made to FIG. 1 wherein there is shown a block diagram of a portion of a telecommunications network 10 implementing a prior art transaction-based interface (IF) 12 between a customer administrative system (CAS) 14 and a plurality of database network elements (NE) 16. The telecommunications network 10 comprises a wireless (for example, cellular) communications system, and each database network element 16 comprises a home location register (HLR) database storing permanent and temporary wireless subscriber data. The permanent data stored in the database network element 16 comprises fixed information concerning the communications service subscripted to by each subscriber. The temporary data stored in the database network element 16 comprises variable information concerning the current location of each subscriber.
The customer administrative system 14 is utilized to engage in transactions relating to the administration of the permanent data stored in each database network element 16. These administration activities, in general, relate to transactions performed for the purposes of customer (i.e., subscriber) creation or definition, service activation, and the like, relating to a given customer. More particularly, the transactions relate to subscriber data administration tasks such as:
subscription initiation/removal/status, PA1 subscriber activation/cancellation, PA1 service provision/withdrawal/activation/passivation, PA1 C-number (transfer) definition, PA1 pass code changes, and PA1 serial number changes.
The transactions may further relate to authentication administration tasks such as authentication activation/change/deactivation/status. Additionally, the transactions relate to numbering plan configuration including number range assignment, numbering plan deletion and numbering plan viewing.
By "transaction-based" it is meant that the interface 12 receives orders originated at the customer administrative system 14 and directed (i.e., addressed) to a particular one of the database network elements 16, converts those commands to a proper format for communication to and/understanding by the addressed database network element, and routes to the addressed database network element. Similarly, the interface 12 receives any response to the order from the addressed database network element 16, converts the response to a proper format for communication to and/understanding by the customer administrative system 14 that originated the order, and routes to the originating customer administrative system. Thus, one order generated by the customer administrative system 14 which is sent through the interface 12 to an addressed database network element 16 produces one corresponding response. Queries comprising interrogations of one or more of the database network elements 16, however, cannot be generated by the customer administrative system 14 and pass through the transaction-based interface 12.
There is a need for an improved interface between a customer administrative system and one or more database network elements that will support not only database querying, but also the communication of files containing the results of the querying operation.